Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Extend Your iPhone’s Battery Life

Is it because the battery is terrible or because iPhone users really, really use their phones more than other devices?

It's the latter.

The Apple iPhone. It is the most amazing phone ever. And that means that users use the phone for voice, text, and a wide range of computing uses.

And these activities all drain the battery.

So what can you do?

Here are my favorite two tips for extending battery life on the iPhone.

First, be sure to keep your iPhone out of the sun or other hot place like your car or the glove box. Heat will significantly degrade your iPhone's batter life.

Second, close any app that you are not using. While multitasking can be useful, it can drain your battery. Double click on the home button and then press and hold on the multitasking app icons. Then click the "x" to close them.

Other things you can do to extend battery life:

You should also keep your iPhone upgraded to the latest software available for your phone. Apple engineers often include such mundane things as extending battery life in upgrades.

Minimize use of location services: Applications that use location services such as Maps may reduce battery life. To disable location services, go to Settings > General > Location Services.

Turn off push notifications. Many apps use the Push Notification service to alert you of new data. To disable push notifications, go to Settings > Notifications and set Notifications to Off.

Fetch data less often. The more often email is fetched, your battery may drain quicker. To fetch new data manually, from the Home screen choose Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New Data and tap Manually.

Turn off Wi-Fi: If you rarely use Wi-Fi, you can turn it off to save power. Go to Settings > Wi-Fi and set Wi-Fi to Off.

Turn off Bluetooth: If you rarely use a Bluetooth headset or car kit, you can turn off Bluetooth to save power. Go to Settings > General > Bluetooth and set Bluetooth to Off.

Use Airplane Mode in low- or no-coverage areas. You won't be able to make or receive phone calls. To turn on Airplane Mode, go to Settings and set Airplane Mode to On.

Adjust brightness. Dimming the screen is another way to extend battery life. Go to Settings > Brightness and drag the slider to the left to lower the default screen brightness.

Finally, it's often useful to have power chargers wherever you are. Having your phone fully charged makes your iPhone experience a bright one!